Category Archives: gastronomy

michele

25 Tuesday Jun 2024

Posted by in gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla, twitter, twitter friends

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Got to meet another Twitter pal in person over the weekend. Michele @mneylon is a world-travelling food-loving guy from Ireland and we’ve known each other virtually for YEARS. And then all of a sudden he was in Sevilla! So we met up for lunch. When Michele mentioned he’d like some seafood I knew we had to go to Salmedina. I mean, I go there a lot both on my own and on my tapas tours, but it’s always fun to go with someone who really knows and appreciates good food.

Our waiter recommended the “pez tambor” in tempura and… he was so right! I’d never heard of this fish before, which is found on the Cádiz coast. Toothy little guy, also very toothsome, with firm sweet flesh in light crispy batter. Michele also made sure to get all the goodness out of the head (cheeks etc) but before taking it away our waiter pointed out that there was still some good eating from behind the eyes, and Michele happily followed instructions.

That evening I suggested that Michele go to another of my favourite spots, Augurio, and so he went with two friends and, well, raved about it. There are other excellent new restaurants in town but to me Augurio is THE opening of 2024 (even though we’re still in June I feel safe saying this). Anyhow, great to meet Michele and I hope he’ll be back again before too long.

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filming session

13 Thursday Jun 2024

Posted by in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars, television

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filming

I was asked a while ago to help a television production company with an upcoming travel and gastronomy feature in Sevilla and I was happy to do so even though they later mentioned that they also wanted me to be in the programme too (!!!). And well… eep. I had set them up with the perfect bar and chefs for filming the cooking sessions, but later they also wanted to film a “tapeo”. Again, I organised this with two of my favourite bars and got their permission and when Jaime, one of the chefs, said he’d also be going along on the tapeo I thought “great! I’m off the hook!”. Except no. They still wanted me to come along and join the small group going out.

And well, it was fun and I was happy to help my friends get some nice exposure but I seriously hope any shots with me in it end up on the cutting room floor. Also, I didn’t make it to our final bar because everything was running late, my knee was killing me, and I had a lunchtime tapas tour in Triana the next day. So I bailed and hoped they would get some good stuff at the last place. Will let you know when it comes out, sometime early 2025 is the plan. Until then I can’t say much more about it.

caracolia!

31 Friday May 2024

Posted by in culture, events, gastronomy, sevilla

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caracolia 24

This is the second Caracolia – aka Sevilla Snail Festival – with 13 bars from Sevilla city and province participating serving up both caracoles and cabrillas. The former are a smaller snail cooked in spicy broth, cabrillas are bigger and usually cooked in a cuminy tomato sauce. It’s a fun event and lovely that it’s down by the river to catch a cool post-dusk breeze. We had a great time and even caught a spectacular sunset on the way home.

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ishay & tuanni

30 Thursday May 2024

Posted by in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas tours

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What a lovely surprise to see Ishay again after… 9 years! Last time we were together was in London as part of a Foodie Hub global meet up. Ishay got in touch while I was in Jerez to say she’d be in town for a couple of days with her friend Tuanni and so last night they joined me on a tapas tour with a lovely couple from Australia. We had a great time and it was lovely to her again and catch up. Our last meal together (below) at Kitty Fisher’s in London.

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fundación cruzcampo

21 Tuesday May 2024

Posted by in andalucia, gastro guias, gastronomy, sevilla, spam

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fundacion cruzcampo

Today the Gastro Guías executive committee (don’t we sound posh!) met with Paco Ybarra and Claudia Guardiola from the Cruzcampo Foundation to to talk about possible workshops or courses that might be possible for our guides. Paco is the head chef of the foundation’s cooking school and Claudia is the foundation manager. It was a great meeting and we came away with so many ideas and, more importantly, we made another great contact that is keen on helping our association.

I mean, I already know Paco because he is also with the Academia Sevillana de Gastronomía y Turismo (we were both accepted as members at the same time last year) but I was surprised to discover Claudia is the sister of Jaime and Eduardo, both of whom I’ve known for ages. Really love the connections.

Step by step. I know we are going somewhere with this. I also know it’s been a steep learning curve for all four of us founding members and that in spite of some ups and downs we work very well together. Really proud to be a part of this whole adventure.